Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore was not yet leading the LAFD a year ago when the deadly Palisades Fire broke out — but this week he found himself defending the department, while at the same time acknowledging its past mistakes and stressing he is committed to improvements to avoid future such disasters.
Moore — named in October by Mayor Karen Bass to lead the department after former Chief Kristin Crowley was fired in the Palisades Fire aftermath — appeared at Tuesday’s meeting of the Los Angeles Board of Fire Commissioners.
He addressed criticism of the department’s handling of the smaller brush fire that later reignited and grew into the devastating Palisades Fire, and he also touched on the controversy over modifications to an after-action report on the department’s response to the emergency.
“I want to begin by saying this clearly — last January, our firefighters performed with courage, professionalism and commitment under extraordinary dangerous conditions,” Moore said. “They did their jobs, often at great personal risk, and they did not fail the city.
“At the same time, there were clearly significant shortcomings in our response as a department, and as the newly appointed fire chief, the responsibility for how this department prepares, deploys and adapts for the future, rests with me.”
On Jan. 1, 2025, firefighters responded to the Lachman Fire, which began in the hills of Pacific Palisades. Days later, that same fire was still burning underground and re-ignited to become the Palisades Fire, fueled by historically strong Santa Ana winds and dry conditions.
“There has been a lot of recent coverage about the response to the Lachman Fire, and I want to address it directly today,” Moore said Tuesday.
“At the time, fire companies were directed to pick up the hose. The department genuinely believed the fire was fully extinguished. That was based on information, conditions and procedures in place at that time. That belief guided the operational decision that was made.”
Moore said the outcome made it clear that the LAFD’s mop-up and verification process needed to be stronger.
“We have to own that, and I do,” he said.
The chief noted that as of Tuesday, approximately 74% of recommendations listed in the after-action report were implemented. Among the most important changes, Moore said, were the use of drone technology, thermal imaging and revised incident weather decision-making matrices to better anticipate fire behavior and deploy resources earlier and more strategically.
“These changes are now in place to ensure this will never happen again. Please understand that Palisades and Lachman fires were defining moments for this department,” Moore said. “They unfortunately exposed real limitations — limitations in system capacity during periods of extreme demand, including challenges related to staffing availability, resource placement and the speed at which conditions can change during wind-driven fire events.”
Moore concluded his remarks by affirming that “accountability also means outside review.”
He formally asked the Fire Safety Research Institute to include the Lachman Fire as part of its broader analysis of January’s fires. The institute conducted an independent analysis of the L.A. fires, as ordered by state leaders.
Moore said he also ordered a separate independent investigation into the Lachman Fire to closely examine the department’s decisions, procedures and where improvements are needed.
“That review is about learning. It’s not about assigning blame, (but) ensuring our policies, our practices reflect the realities of modern fire behavior,” Moore said.
The LAFD’s after-action report on the fire went through several drafts that minimized the department’s failings both before and after the deadly blaze broke out, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
The newspaper said it obtained copies of seven drafts prepared before the final report was issued on Oct. 8, 2025. Despite the revisions, the final report was still critical of the LAFD, finding that the agency’s response to the unfolding disaster was hampered by limited resources, as well as leadership and communication challenges.
Moore on Tuesday reiterated that challenges the department faced regarding the fires were not the result of failures by firefighters on the line.
“They reflect leadership decisions, legacy systems and longstanding structural constraints that must evolve to meet today’s risk environment,” Moore said.
“As many of you are aware, it is now clear that multiple drafts were edited to soften the language and reduce explicit criticism of department leadership in that final report. This editing occurred prior to my appointment as fire chief, and I can assure you that nothing of this sort will ever again happen while I am fire chief,” Moore added.
Moore’s predecessor, Crowley, was fired on Feb. 21, with Bass citing what she called failures in leadership ahead of the fire, particularly what Bass said was the department’s failure to pre-deploy about 1,000 firefighters the morning of Jan. 7.
“We all know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke, but were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch,” Bass said at the time. “These actions required her removal.”
Bass also cited Crowley’s alleged refusal to prepare an after-action report on the firefight — an allegation Crowley has denied. The mayor further contended that Crowley had failed to give her a weather update prior to the historic windstorm as she had done for other potentially dangerous weather events, despite such warnings being widely publicized for several days prior to Jan. 7.
Crowley filed a damages claim against the city in August, alleging her firing was an act of retaliation for her public comments that the mayor’s budget cuts and the city’s alleged decades of neglect had left the LAFD under-funded, under-staffed and ill-equipped to handle the rising demands of the city.